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For Syracuse, Wagner game provides an opportunity to cure what ails team after 0-2 start

Syracuse Northwestern Foot(1).JPG

Syracuse is 0-2 for the sixth time in the last eight years but welcomes FCS opponent Wagner to the Carrier Dome in Saturday's home opener. The game offers Syracuse a chance to work out more kinks that doomed it the previous two weeks.
(AP photo/Matt Marton)

Syracuse, N.Y. — If anyone could accurately take the temperature of this 0-2 Syracuse team heading into this weekend's home-opener against Wagner, Jay Bromley is a safe pick.

The senior defensive tackle is a co-captain, does not mince words, and he has the gravitas coach Scott Shafer covets in his players, a work ethic and desire to always polish his craft.

So when Bromley says there hasn't been any reason to push a panic button after Saturday's 48-27 undressing at Northwestern, you give him the benefit of the doubt. If you ask him if there was a team meeting to air out the frustration of another 0-2 start or to dissect what has gone wrong, he'll lay it on straight.

"We're not at that point yet," Bromley said.

"We started the same way last year. We're still confident in knowing we're a good team. We can beat these teams if we don't make these mistakes. We're just working on improving each week and minimizing the mistakes so we can win games."

That tone can change dramatically after Saturday's tilt with Wagner. But considering Syracuse is 11-0 against Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) opponents since 1978, with 10 of those victories coming at the Carrier Dome, the game is more likely to
provide an opportunity to put the cart back on the rails.

And did I mention Wagner lost last week to Division II Merrimack, 42-41?

First, a quick refresher and how we got here.

Syracuse's offense came up empty on two possessions in the final five minutes against Penn State with the game on the line. Defensively, the Orange was solid in shutting down the Penn State running game, but the secondary got exposed when star wide receiver Allen Robinson returned from suspension in the second half.

Things only got worse defensively the following week at Northwestern when the Wildcats hung 581 yards of total offense on the Orange. Afterward, Shafer was angry, pounding the podium with his fist as he lamented the fact his team was not ready to play a top-20 opponent.

"John Wooden stated a setback is a setup for a comeback," Shafer said. "And I believe that."

Wagner is the first opportunity to right the ship, and there are several areas Shafer is keeping a close eye on this week.

Drew Allen, the fifth-year senior who came to Syracuse via Oklahoma by taking advantage of the NCAA's post-graduate transfer rule, has thrown six interceptions in two games, more than any quarterback in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

"That's unacceptable," offensive coordinator George McDonald said. "That's where it has to start. That's the No. 1 priority."

Quarterbacks coach Tim Lester said Tuesday that Allen will start against Wagner but redshirt sophomore Terrel Hunt will also play. It is unknown how Syracuse plans to work Hunt in, be it a rotation by series, quarter, half or specific package.

Lester, a mathematics major at Western Michigan, is a connoisseur of numbers. And when it's time to go back and evaluate the quarterback play, Lester's eyes will gravitate down.

"Their feet tell the story," Lester said, "every single time."

Lester charts completion percentage when the quarterbacks' feet are set versus not set. Bad footwork is a surefire sign of discomfort, he said.

"The timing has been pretty good," Lester said, "but until it all clicks like it did a couple times when they feel comfortable with that timing is when that number will start skyrocketing."

Opposing quarterbacks have had no trouble completing passes against the Syracuse defense through two weeks. Yes it's a small sample size against two Big Ten teams in September, but Syracuse needs to do a better job stopping the pass. It has given up an average of 336 yards per game through the air, ranking 117th in the country.

Communication issues hurt the secondary last week at Northwestern, safety Durell Eskridge said. But the pass rush was ineffective against a quarterback tandem that quickly got rid of the ball, often times exposing the back end of the defense to big plays.

"It ain't what I want to see," Eskridge said. "I know what we're going to do. We're going to go out and play Syracuse defense. We're going go in there. We're going to fight hard. Our goal is to hold them to three yards or less, and I feel like that's what we're going to do."

Of course, slow starts at Syracuse are nothing new. This is the sixth time in the last eight seasons that the Orange started 0-2.

But wide receiver Jarrod West said there's more focus at this juncture than last year, and the team is "ready to fix the things in the game."

Many questions remain on both sides of the ball. Will the game plan lean more toward Jerome Smith and the ground game, which, for various reasons, has not looked like the dominant unit on offense many anticipated in the preseason?

Will Allen eliminate the costly turnovers that has given Hunt another opportunity to run the offense?